Publius+Forum Warner+Todd+Huston Media+Bias AP Associat

00Publius Contributor - Democrats/Leftists - Media Bias - News - Society/Culture - Warner Todd Huston

AP’s New Muckraking Style, From Just-The-Facts to In-Your-Face

July 15, 2008 by 1 Comment

-By Warner Todd Huston

For those unfamiliar, since May of this year the Associated Press has had a new Washington Bureau Chief, a past AP reporter named Ron Fournier. According to Politico, the previous chief was pushed out to make room for Fournier in a “hard-feelings shake-up” with the old chief left worried that Fournier might “destroy” the AP. A pretty stark assessment, of course, but not necessarily all sour grapes from the passing chief because there is a legitimate reason for her to worry about Fournier. You see, Fournier has decided that a more hard-charging, opinion oriented style of writing is the new direction the AP should take in this new Internet age and it’s a direction that makes the AP’s past bias even more pronounced.

Former chief, Sandy Johnson, is a bit worried about Fournier’s new direction. “I loved the Washington bureau. I just hope he doesn’t destroy it,” she is quoted as telling the Politico. It seems she has reason to worry.

Continue reading “AP’s New Muckraking Style, From Just-The-Facts to In-Your-Face”

00Publius Contributor - Democrats/Leftists - Family - Media Bias - Morals/Sex - News - Society/Culture - Warner Todd Huston

When Reporters Become the News We All Lose

July 10, 2008 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

As the media systematically ignores the good news in Iraq, the AP instead turns to “reporting” on a “journalist’s” Iraq love tryst. Why we need to see a story of CBS’ Lara Logan’s romance troubles is anyone’s guess? But apparently the AP thinks that Lara Logan’s love tryst with a married contractor in Iraq is “news” while the surge and the complete lack of any real civil war in Iraq is not.

Here is the problem with the news media. Dan Rather fell for it. Walter Cronkite was overcome by it. Each of these “journalists” imagined that they were the news, that their lives and opinions were just as important to the nation as the news upon which they reported.

Sure Logan is a slightly better than average looking newsbabe, but so what? Is her horsing around with a married man something that is important to the world? Is her slutting around with multiple partners during her time as a correspondent in Iraq something that we all have a hunger, a NEED to know?

I just don’t see it. I just don’t see how her loose moral choices could be a compelling story of any kind… unless it is as an object lesson against her actions. Even then. But, here is where we are in the media today. Instead of pursuing the news, instead of worrying about the integrity of the truth, we have “journalists” who want to be the story instead of just reporting on it.

Continue reading “When Reporters Become the News We All Lose”

00Publius Contributor - Democrats/Leftists - Media Bias - News - President - Security/Safety - Society/Culture - Warner Todd Huston

AP Highlights Bush Bashing ‘Documentary’

June 4, 2008 by 1 Comment

-By Warner Todd Huston

The AP gives us a story about some so-called “documentary” about what evil befell the poor folks of Crawford, Texas, after Governor George W. Bush bought his ranch property there.
I’ll start right out with the key section that pretty much describes what we’re dealing with, a quote by the director of this film. “I wanted to do a film indicting Bush for this political stagecraft, using this town as a prop.” A guy that wanted to exploit the kind folks of Crawford, Texas is being presented as a wonderful fellow by the press? Say it isn’t so!

Naturally, the AP is in sympathy for the poor folks of Crawford who had the misfortune of becoming Bush’s hometown. So, now a man can’t even buy a house without it being the most evil thing any one has ever done, eh?

For years, folks took for granted the pleasures of small-town life: unlocked doors, little traffic and a tranquility interrupted only by high school football games or passing train horns.

Then came George W. Bush.

Yes, “then came George W. Bush,” as if he were the harbinger of doom. My guess is that one could easily find a similar situation in just about any town that any president of the modern age hailed from while he sat in the White House. Who could not realize that such a town would have its bout with protesters, an occasional invasion of media types, the boom of having a famous resident while he is famous and the bust when he leaves office and fades into history, and the mixed emotions of residents, some of whom are sure not to support the president in question.

In essence, this is a big “so what?”

Continue reading “AP Highlights Bush Bashing ‘Documentary’”

00Publius Contributor - Democrats/Leftists - Islam - Islamofascism - Media Bias - Military - News - Society/Culture - Warner Todd Huston

The AP Maligns Our Soldiers On Memorial Day Weekend

May 26, 2008 by 2 Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

It’s a happy Memorial Day from the Associated Press as they inform that nation that a few Marines involved themselves in a “shooting spree” in Afghanistan. Yes, the AP makes it seem as if our Marines began “firing indiscriminately at vehicles and civilians” during a March 4th altercation near Nangarhar province. But, a closer read finds a far murkier story and one that seems to say that our Marines didn’t go wild but that they thought they were under attack. Whether the Marines were right or wrong about being attacked is the real question at the end of the day. But whatever the case, right at the outset the AP presented the incident as if the Marines were in the wrong.

Even the headline casts the Marines actions in the negative: “Afghans appalled Marines not charged in killings.” No benefit of the doubt there. In fact, the whole first half of the story explores the charges against the Marines before a single word in their defense appears.

Afghan officials expressed outrage Saturday at the decision by the U.S. military not to charge U.S. Marines involved in a shooting spree that left 19 Afghan civilians dead in 2007.

…Afghan witnesses and a report by Afghanistan’s Independent Human Rights Commission concluded that a unit of Marine special operations troops opened fire along a 10-mile (16 kilometer) stretch of road, killing up to 19 civilians and wounding 50 other people.

However, we come to discover that the Marines determined that the soldiers “acted appropriately and in accordance with the rules of engagement and tactics, techniques and procedures in place at the time in response to a complex attack.” And that the incident occurred after their convoy was hit by a suicide bomber. And we also find out that this ruling came after a three-week tribunal investigating the charges was held.

Continue reading “The AP Maligns Our Soldiers On Memorial Day Weekend”

00Publius Contributor - Democrats/Leftists - Media Bias - Military - News - Security/Safety - Society/Culture - Warner Todd Huston

AP: Military Hits Recruiting Goals Despite ‘Slow Economy,’ and ‘Unpopular War’

May 13, 2008 by 1 Comment

-By Warner Todd Huston

Don’t you just love the MSM? They can’t even report good news without interjecting their doom and gloom, agenda driven verbiage into any report. This time it is the Associated Press with the good news that the Marines and the rest of America’s armed forces have reached their recruiting goals. In fact, many branches of the service exceeded them. All good news, right? Well, naturally the AP had to throw some cold water on the good tidings. You see, according to the AP the Marines fulfilled their recruiting goals because of a “slow economy” and despite Iraq being an “unpopular war.” They just can’t let it go, can they?

After giving us the details that the Marines surpassed their recruiting goals the AP had to remind us that U.S. forces were “stretched thin by the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan” and that those joining the service are doing so because — and here is that old canard again — “other job possibilities” are limited for them.

Recruiting is easier in a slow economy, which limits other job possibilities that are available. But officials also noted that the Army and Marines have added recruiters as well as bonuses and other special benefits to attract more recruits in the midst of the unpopular war in Iraq.

How “unpopular” can it be if the services are finding it so easy to fulfill their recruiting goals, anyway? And how many times do we have to prove the they-can’t-get-a-job claim made against our recruits is not true?

Continue reading “AP: Military Hits Recruiting Goals Despite ‘Slow Economy,’ and ‘Unpopular War’”

00Publius Contributor - Democrats/Leftists - Media Bias - News - Society/Culture - Warner Todd Huston

Misleading AP Headline: Comedy Daily Show Just Like O’Reilly

May 9, 2008 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

The Associated Press today wins first place for the most misleading headline in the MSM by saying that a study shows that Jon Stewart’s Comedy Central “The Daily Show” show is somehow “a lot like” Bill O’Reilly’s “The O’Reilly Factor.” The Thursday May 8 report is flippantly headlined, “Study of ‘Daily Show’: It’s a lot like O’Reilly,” but the following report does not exactly confirm the headline. It appears that the AP’s distorted headline was meant to equate “The O’Reilly Factor” to comedy in order to impugn the serious character of the hit Fox show and make of it but an exercise in comedy.

The AP piece is reporting on the results of a survey of a year’s worth of Stewart’s comedy talk show to see what sort of information Stewart’s show imparts to the many young people who are thought to turn to Stewart for most of their news coverage.

The final determination is that if young people are truly understanding the jokes that Stewart tells they must be getting more news elsewhere or the topical nature of the jokes would not be understood by viewers.

Continue reading “Misleading AP Headline: Comedy Daily Show Just Like O’Reilly”

00Publius Contributor - Democrats/Leftists - Media Bias - News - Religion - Society/Culture - Warner Todd Huston

‘Conservative’ Christian’s ‘Manifesto’ Has Few Conservatives Involved

May 3, 2008 by 1 Comment

-By Warner Todd Huston

On May 2, the Associated Press uncritically reported that an effort to clarify where “evangelicals” stand in the culture/political war in America is soon to be released. It is to be called “An Evangelical Manifesto” and is touted by the AP as a statement by “evangelicals” that “faith is now too political.” That isn’t all. The AP is claiming that it isn’t just Christian leaders in general that are saying this but that it is “conservative Christian leaders” who are standing up and denouncing politics in religion. But a little investigation proves that “conservative leaders” is not a very good description of those who have signed onto this “manifesto.” In fact, many of the most well-known conservative Christian leaders in the country have decided not to sign onto the “manifesto” and many more weren’t even consulted or included in the creation of this highly political document that pretends it stands against politics.

Sadly, this “manifesto” that is claiming to want to take religion back from its political involvement is itself a political statement, one that was created by people that refused to include Christian leaders from the right side of the political spectrum. This so-called “manifesto” seems to be just another attempt by the political left to undermine the devotion of Christians to the political right.

And the AP is more than happy to help them along…

Conservative Christian leaders who believe the word “evangelical” has lost its religious meaning plan to release a starkly self-critical document saying the movement has become too political and has diminished the Gospel through its approach to the culture wars.

The statement, called “An Evangelical Manifesto,” condemns Christians on the right and left for “using faith” to express political views without regard to the truth of the Bible, according to a draft of the document obtained Friday by The Associated Press.

If we are to just swallow whole what the AP is selling, we’d imagine that Christian leaders on the conservative side are upset over what has happened to their faith. In fact, the AP flat out declares it to be so.

The document is the latest chapter in the debate among conservative Christians about their role in public life. Most veteran leaders believe the focus should remain on abortion and marriage, while other evangelicals—especially in the younger generation—are pushing for a broader agenda. The manifesto sides with those seeking a wide-range of concerns beyond “single-issue politics.”

This so-called “manifesto” has not been released, so we do not have a full list of all those who have signed onto the letter. But many details about the contents and those who have signed onto the thing have been reported. And what we find is that a large number of those Christian leaders who are associated with powerful right leaning organizations were refused a place at the table of the creation of this document.

Continue reading “‘Conservative’ Christian’s ‘Manifesto’ Has Few Conservatives Involved”

00Publius Contributor - Democrats/Leftists - Immigration/Immigrants - Media Bias - News - Security/Safety - Society/Culture - Warner Todd Huston

An Example of AP’s Bias in Favor of Illegal Immigration

April 26, 2008 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

The issue of illegal immigration has seemed to drift from the front pages of the news, of late, but the AP is not finished trying to advocate for law breakers everywhere, it seems. On April 25, the Associated Press posted a story that serves as a perfect example of how the wire service aims their reporting to support illegal immigration in the United States. In “Arizona sheriff stirs furor with crackdown on illegals,” all the negative framing of the issue is used against Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s efforts to curb illegal immigration and those who stand against him are constantly given the benefit of the doubt with neutral or positive language describing their actions. Additionally, whenever illegals are mentioned they are presented as victims, one “afraid” immigrant even being quoted as calling our immigration officials “the devil.”

The subject of the story is Sheriff Arpaio’s recent “crackdown” on illegal immigrants in his jurisdiction of Maricopa County, Arizona. After Federal training was given to his officers, the sheriff began a series of sweeps across the county to detain illegal immigrants. His actions are completely legal and not a single case of abuse by the sheriff’s officers has been reported — a fact that the AP story doesn’t bother to mention until the 20th paragraph of the 22 paragraph story.

As the AP piece starts we get a shot at Arpiao right away with a snarky description of the man as being the “self-proclaimed ‘toughest sheriff in America.'” Then the AP starts right in with several paragraphs of Hispanic pandering, public officials in small towns inside Arpaio’s jurisdiction attacking the sheriff’s actions. In fact, as paragraph after paragraph of the his detractors appear in the AP piece railing against the man’s work, the man himself gets only a few lines in the story to defend himself.

Continue reading “An Example of AP’s Bias in Favor of Illegal Immigration”

00Publius Contributor - Democrats/Leftists - Education - Media Bias - News - Society/Culture - Warner Todd Huston

Guv’s Daughter Gets Unearned College Degree… Guess Which Party?

April 24, 2008 by 1 Comment

-By Warner Todd Huston

Looks like the daughter of the West Virginia’s Democratic governor has gotten herself into a bit of a scandal with an unearned, politically awarded college degree from West Virginia University. A panel to review allegations that the woman didn’t really earn that degree was convened and it was determined that she just does not qualify to get that degree that was awarded her by “High-ranking academic officers” at the school. Naturally, no report mentions that Gov. Joe Manchin is a member of the Democratic Party and that HE was the one that appointed the school’s officials.

It seems that at the school, highly placed friends of the Democratic governor were trying to cover for the Guv’s daughter who claimed for several years that she had a degree when she did not. Heather Bresch was suddenly awarded an MBA from WVU nearly a decade after she left the school and after the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette called the University to check on the woman’s degree.

Back in December of 2007, the Post-Gazette broke the story of the politically awarded degree.

Top officials took the action nearly a decade after she was a student. The revision was sparked by a routine call from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette to confirm the academic credentials of Ms. Bresch, daughter of West Virginia Gov. Joe Manchin, following her Oct. 2 promotion to chief operating officer at Mylan. The Cecil-based company is chaired by Milan Puskar, WVU’s largest benefactor.

The paper then recounted all the appointments that the Governor made to the school’s board and hinted that the MBA was awarded because of politics and not completed class work.

Since then, a board had been looking into the awarding of the degree and now it has been concluded that the Governor’s daughter really didn’t earn the degree she was awarded.

Now, the news today is that the board is announcing their findings that Bresch does not deserve her MBA. As usual, the stories are filled with all sorts of details about the situation and about the woman’s father, Governor Joe Manchin. Well, all sorts of details but the fact that the Governor and all his appointees to the school are Democrats, that is.

Continue reading “Guv’s Daughter Gets Unearned College Degree… Guess Which Party?”

00Publius Contributor - Crime - Democrats/Leftists - Media Bias - Morals/Sex - News - Society/Culture - Warner Todd Huston

County Sheriff Runs Sex-Slave Operation from Jail — Guess Which Party?

April 18, 2008 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Well, this time the AP has really done it. Dateline Custer County, Oklahoma: Sheriff Mike Burgess resigns after authorities charged him with running a sex-slave operation out of his jail using female inmates he bribed for the purpose. So, which party did the AP tell us our crafty entrepreneur was from? Well, they seem to have forgotten to mention it… shocking, I know.

Oklahoma sheriff charged with using inmates as sex slaves

ARAPAHO, Okla. (AP) — Authorities have charged a western Oklahoma sheriff with coercing and bribing female inmates so he could use them in a sex-slave operation run out of his jail.

Custer County Sheriff Mike Burgess resigned Wednesday just as state prosecutors filed 35 felony charges against him, including 14 counts of second-degree rape, seven counts of forcible oral sodomy and five counts of bribery by a public official.

Yikes, just plain yikes! It looks like our salacious sheriff of that unknown party is really in dutch for this one.

Continue reading “County Sheriff Runs Sex-Slave Operation from Jail — Guess Which Party?”

00Publius Contributor - Democrats/Leftists - Education - Media Bias - Morals/Sex - News - Society/Culture - Warner Todd Huston

Plagiarism a ‘Consequence of the Internet’? I Don’t Think So!

April 2, 2008 by 1 Comment

-By Warner Todd Huston

Just once I’d like to see blame for one of our societal ills put in the proper place these days. Everyone has to finger point at everyone else while ignoring their own part in the mess. This incident, though, is just another bad example of blame put everywhere but where it belongs. In this case, the AP reports about a University of Texas at San Antonio incident of plagiarism of which Clemson University’s Daniel Wueste ridiculously blames on the Internet.

At the UofT, a student committee was convened to write an honor code to discourage cheating and plagiarizing, a rising problem in our Universities nation wide. Unfortunately, the student committee’s results lifted sections of Brigham Young University’s honor code that the UofT students found on-line. Yes, the code to discourage cheating and plagiarism was, in part, plagiarized.

AP gives us the details:

Student Akshay Thusu said that when he took over the project a month ago he inherited a draft by earlier project participants, including a group of students who attended a conference five years ago put on by The Center for Academic Integrity at Clemson.

Materials from the conference, which are used by many universities, were probably the main source of UTSA’s proposed code, Thusu said. That’s why parts of the Texas draft match word-for-word the online version of Brigham Young University’s code.

BYU credited the Center for Academic Integrity, but the San Antonio draft doesn’t.

But, what or who is at fault for this “oversight”? The AP asked Daniel Wueste, director of the Rutland Institute for Ethics at Clemson University why he thought this was becoming so prevalent?

“That’s the consequence of the Internet and the availability of things. It doesn’t feel like what would be in a book. You Google it and here it comes.”

I’m sorry, what? It’s Google’s fault, it’s the Internet’s fault?

Continue reading “Plagiarism a ‘Consequence of the Internet’? I Don’t Think So!”